Indianapolis Journal, Indianapolis, Marion County, 14 January 1885 — Page 4

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THE DAILY JOURNAL. nr jxo. c. new & sox. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14. 1885. THU INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL Can h fount’ at tbe following places LONDON —American Exchange in Europe, 449 Strand. FARTS—American Exchange in Paris, 35 Boulevard des Capucines. NEW YORK—St. Nicholas and Windsor Hotels. CHICAOO—PaImer House. CINCINNATI— J. R Hawley & Cos., 154 Vine Street. LOUISVILLE—C. T. Dearing. northwest come Third and Jefferson streets. BT. LOUlS—Union News Company, Union Depot and Southern HoteL Telephone Calls. Business Offico 238 | Editorial Rooms 242 The rebel yell is heard in the national capitol. The boys fully recognize it. Senator Foulke yesterday introduced a bill providing for calling a constitutional contention. Eulogies for Jeff Davis; objections for Uslvsses S. Grant. This is the record of the Democrats of the United States Senate. Mr. Hawley's resolution calling for the Sherman-Davis papers passed the Senate yesterday, despite the confederate brigadiers. “The Confederacy is in the saddle.” — Major Edwards. For confirmation read the report of the debate in the Senate on Monday afternoon. Senator and General Joseph R. Hawley had the audacity, yesterday, to allude to “conspirators and traitors.” Where was the mighty Lamar? When Mr. Colfax started for the Northwest to lecture on the “Landmarks of Life,” he probably had little thought that he would reach the last milestone before his return. The situation at Springfield, 111., may very properly be called interesting. It appears, on the face of the returns, that Mr. Elijah M. Haines is holding that part of the country up by the tail. Mr. St. John’s facile and elastic tongue, aided and abetted by Mr. Legate’s nimble pen. are what is causing all this trouble to the third-party man who was never great but who. a long time ago and in Kansas, was thought to be very good.

You mar talk of tariff and of civil-service reform until you are black in tlie face. Nothing will be done in this country until the vital and fundamental questions upon which the war was fought are finally and forever settled. No amount of sneering at the “bloody shirt" will alter the fact. A part of the petition of Belva Lockwood is made possible by the idiotic action of fifteen able gentlemen of Indiana, of whose tomfoolery the Journal expressed a plain opinion at the time. The election of a President is surrounded with sufficient nonsense at best, without men who are under oath to perform a solemn duty making downright fools of uiemselves. The sudden and sad death of Hon. Schuyler .Colfax will, no doubt, be appropriately noted both by State and national authority. It would be becoming for the citizens of Indianapolis to take some cognizance of the event. When the date for the funeral shall be announced arrangements will be made for a representative attendance from the capital of the State. UNTIL the recent disclosures in regard to St. John few people knew how expensive disease sore throat might become. About ten thousand dollars, it was thought, would be sufficient to cure the litlle attack which took him to Michigan. Fortunately for the welfare of the community the peculiar form of the malady from which the ex-candidate suffered is not catching. m ” The Democratic Washington Post admits that the charge that Jeff. Davis was guilty treason and conspiracy is probably true, if Gen. Sherman says so, but “what of it?" it inquires. ‘‘The country is not bothering itself about ancient history just. now. It is looking ahead, not backwards, 1' Evidently the Post had not heard from Senators Lamar and Vest, when it made this rash assertion. There are too many gaping wounds and too much distress and debt left in the country as the legacy of treason to make it palatable or popular, just yet, to exalt treason above loyalty. The defenders of Jefferson Da ais are talking out of time. The day may come when treachery and fidelity will be on a par in public estimation, but not now. There are too many armless and legless veterans—too many with vebel lead in their bodies—to allow Jefferson Davis to be canonized as a patriot. Colonel Lamont, the gentleman who acts f>s private secretary for Mr. Cleveland, is said to be the mental complement of the Presi-dent-elect. Ah a correspondent puts it, the two gentlemen supplement each other’s quafftie* in a remarkable degree. To prove this in detail, it is reluted that Mr. Lamont understands politics thoroughly, has a wide acquaintance with politicians, is keen, cautious, a good judge of men, and is thoroughly well qualified to advise his master on all questions which are likely to come before him. The inference is, from this statement of the secretary's supplemental qualities, that Mr. Cleveland does not know politics, politicians or

men, and is not posted on the questions of the day. The admirers of Lamont thus place themselves in the position of belittling the new President; but, accepting their statements as true, it follows that the secretary is a man of quite as much importance to the country as its chief—in fact, the wonder narturally arises why he was not discovered sooner, and nominated instead of the reform Governor. Lamont should be carefully guai*ded, lest some misfortune befall him and the country suffer thereby. It is about time that reputable and dignified newspapers should rule Mr. Phineas T. Barnum out of all columns but those espe daily set apart for advertising purposes. His circus is, perhaps, the greatest moral show on earth, and deserves mention, at regular rates, in the space referred to; but the show, it may be remarked, does not include the proprietor, nor entitle him to press notices whenever he may desire. Mr. Barnum is a coarse and vulgar man, whose principal virtues are illimitable effrontery and “cheap John” shrewdness. His latest exhibition of brazen impudence, according to the copy of a letter which, singularly enough, fell into the hands of a Bridgeport newspaper man—Bridgeport being the winter quarters of the “grand aggregation” —is an offer to hire of General Grant, for a large sum, the trophies and relics which were mortgaged to Mr. Vanderbilt. He wants to exhibit them to a “grateful and appreciative public;” offers to divide the profits, and will give bonds for the safe return of the treasures. This proposition from a mere showman is not surprising, perhaps; but, upon the assumption so often conveyed, that Mr. Barnum is a gentleman, it becomes an insult which should be rebuked. That he is not a gentleman, but a showman of coarse perceptions and no instinct of refinement or of sympathy for a brave man in trouble, is proved by the making of the offer. The effect will be to make the public feel more keenly for Grant, in that his misfortunes have made such impertinence possible. The press should pay their respects to Mr. Barnum on this occasion, and suppress hiih henceforth. An Indianapolis correspondent of the New York Sun, who is a well-known Democrat, and understood to be somewhat on the “inside” of party matters, writes: “Mr. Hendricks was preferred at Chicago for the reason that bv every political and personal obligation Hendricks was first in the line of promotion; but tbe desire to see Mr. McDonald in an office equal to his talents and services to the country is strong witli the people.” If tliis be true, then the action of the Dem--9 9 * ocratic State convention in naming Mr. McDonald as the Indiana candidate for President, and the acceptance of that alleged trust by the delegates, headed by Mr. Hendricks himself, was all a piece of insincerity and downright falsehood. That has been our understanding from the first, and the general understanding of the country, but it has not hitherto been avowed by those who were parties to the contemptible cheat. Mr. McDonald has beeu imposed upon about lone enough by the Indiana Democracy.

Mr. Edmunds asked unanimous consent, yesterday, for the immediate consideration of a bill, the purpose of which is to authorize the appointment of Glen. Grant upon the retired list. The Senator explained the proyisions,ancl hoped there would be no objections, but Senator F. M. Cockrell, who was a general in the confederate service, and was one of tlio rebels whipped by the armies under the command of the illustrious old hero, promptly objected. Possibly, in view of the record, the News will revise its opinion that only the Northern doughfaces are making a shameful and infamous spectacle of themselves in Congress. There is a union of the confederate brigadiers and of the Northern sj-mpathizers with treason against Gen. Grant now, as there wa3 when ho was fighting their party in the field. It is an instructive and historical spectacle for the Nation and the world. By your leave, gentlemen—or without it, as you please—Mr. Jefferson Davis, who is ' ’honored by the Southern people’'and “beloved by millions,” was a conspirator and is a traitor; and so were and are all who did what he di** and who now uphold and defend him in his conspiracy and treason. As Senator Morton said at Crown Hill, standing over the graves of men who died for freedom and the government, there is an eternal difference between right and wrong, between loyalty and disloyalty. The cause for which these men died was right, and the cause against which they fought was wrong. History will so write it, and thus will it stand forevermore. Tuf. Chicago Tribune, reviewing the remarkable debate in the United States Senate on Monday, says: “What does it all moan? Simply this: That the .Confederacy is again in the saddle; that an attempt is on foot to undo the results of the war; tnat the solid South regards the election of Cleveland and Hendricks as a vindication of its 'cause;’ and that now they are in control, the fires of hate, smoldering for two decades in the hearts of the rebel leaders, shall find full vent. Lamar’s 'stern and emphatic denial’ is as valueless as a statement from St. John; but it voices the cry of unrepentant hate as clearly as did the yell of Lucifer’s hosts when they forced their way over the battlements and for the moment thought that heaven was a conquered territory.” A Democratic correspondent gives a list ot the Democratic aspirants for Cabinet positions in this State, which is at once formidable and appalling. Hon. Joseph E. McDonald, Hon. David Tnrpie, Hon. Geo. W. Julian, Hon. W. S. Holman and Hon Wm. H. English are named; McDonald for Attorney-general, Turpie, Julian and Holman for the Interior Department, and Mr. English for the Treas-

THE INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1885.

urv. Possibly, if a real, earnest search was made for material, Mr. Cleveland could fill out his entire Cabinet with Indianians. South Bend is sadly afflicted. One woe doth tread upon another's heels, so fast they follow. The partial suspension of the great industrial establishments which have added so greatly to the prosperity of the place is now followed by a labor riot, the particulars of which are given in our telegraphic columns. The news from Fort Wayne is also ominous. It is to be hoped these troubles may be composed without any more serious trouble. There is some consideration shown to schoolteachers in Georgia. Two “gifted, highly cultivated and esteemed Christian young ladies” having accepted positions as teachers of music and crayon drawing in a “female college” of that State, their local paper gives them this send-off: “Every true-hearted Georeian should delight to do honor to such noble women, who have the courage to go out in the world, overcoming all obstacles and fightiug the battles of life.” A school ma’am who can’t beat knowledge into the heads of her pupils after such encouragement as this hasn't the makings of a great educator in her. An unexpurgated edition of the Arabian Nights, translated by John Payne, is about to bo published in New York. It will be brought out in nino volumes, at a cost of five dollars each. The story i3 told that a certain publishing house which ordered a volume of the work from England without knowing its character, made haste, after examination, to lock the took in tbe safe with the fear of Anthony Comstock before their eyes. For obvious reasons, the new edition will not be purchased by careful parents as presents for their children. A Pennsylvania woman who went to Australia, five years ago, leaving numerous mourning creditors behind, was lately converted at a revival meeting, and has since forwarded sufficient funds to square up all her unsettled accounts. The creditors of the American colony in Canada would like to secure tho services of the evangelist who conducts that revival, if he would be willing to accept as his pay a pecentage of the amounts recovered. The widow of Stonewall Jackson attends Evangelist Moody’s meetings at Richmond—which seems to establish the fact that his apology was sufficient, and to quiet any fears of a religious war. Stonewall's “soul is with the saints, we trust,” and it is better to have peace. G. W. Lambebth, Clinton, Ind.: You are correct. The “cold New Year’s” fell on Friday, Jan. 1, 1864. Let everybody make a memorandum of it. To the Editor of tho Indianapolis Journal! Where can I get a good statement of tho present causes of “hard times?” N. O. Smith. Carlos City, lnd. Your best source of information relative to the causes of the present depression in business is the current news from ail parts of the world. It cannot be denied, however, that it arises largely in the hostility of tho Democratic party to the tariff system under which the country has so greatly prospered. With the possibility of ing to compete with manufacturers of countries in which labor and material are much crimper than in America, no American manufacturer can afford to keep his mill running, with the selling price of his products rapidly and constantly declining. Asa measure of self-protection he closes his shops and sends his employes adrift, and, as a result, hundreds of thousands of workmen are idle because of the fear of their employers tc engage in business. Spreading from this collapse, the effect is felt in every branch of business, and the resulting “hard times” are upon us. _

To the Editor of the 1 nrtianapolis Journal: I asked you some weeks ago what length of residence was necessary to citizenship in this country for aliens, and you answered one year. To-day you answer the question, how long does a foreigner have to be in this country to vote by saying five years. Please explain this seeming contradiction. A Header. Morristown, Jan. 12. We said nothing of the sort; neither did you ask such question. Tho first was as to this state, and answered correctly. The second was what length oft time is required for Naturalization, and the answer, five years, was correct. An unnaturalized foreigner can vote in Indiana. To the Editor of tho Indianapolis Journal: What is meant by the underground railroad to Canada! x. Y. Shelby county. The “underground railroad” was a cordon of friendly hiding places extending from the confines of slavery to the blessed land of freedom. It was officered and conducted by men and women who believed in tho righteousness of helping slaves to escape from slavery, and who hid the fleeing blocks from the search of Southern and Northern slave hunters, before and during the time of the fugitive slave law. ABOUT PEOPLE AND THINGS. Dr. Oliver Wenpkli. Holmes presided at the annual reunion of Harvard's class of 1820, in Boston, last week. Nine other members were present. A Philadelphian went to a physician with what he feared was a hopeless case of heart-disease, but was relieved on finding out that the oreakiug sound which he had heard at every deep breath was caused by a little pulley on his patent suspenders. Prof. Fischer, of Munich, is said to have obtained f#*n distilled coal a white crystalline powder, which, in its action on the system, cannot be distinguished from quinine. Its efficacy in reducing fever heat is thought to be remarkable, though one of our wholesale -druggists says that the amount of the drug required to produce this effect is so large as to preclude any rivalry between it and genuine quinine. FRANCIS Parkman. historian, in giving a large part of the manuscript material that he has used in his histories of “France and England in America" to the Massachusetts Historical Society, remarked in presenting the volumes containing Montcalm's letters to Bourlamaque that the injunction “Burn this letter" constantly occurs, but Bourlamaque kept every letter. It is a sure way to have a letter kept to order it destroyed. To an interviewer who asked him if he had any idea of accepting a Cabinet position under the next administration. the Hon. Daniel Dougherty said last week: “My friend, the late John Forney, used to say that if Dan Dougherty were waiting at Burlington for the Philadelphia boat, and it came in sight. Dau would never halloo or wave his handkerchief, but would simply take it for granted that the boat would stop. Os course the boat doesn’t.” D. It. Locks (“Pet'-deum V. Nasby,") the owner of 1,406 of the 1,500 shares of Toledo Blade stock, is happy and comfortably in his old age. He looks no more on the wine when it is red, in faot he has resolved to “paralyse and pulverize the rum power” for the remainder of his life. The Blade, which now has a tremendous circulation, is making lots of money; be has a delightful home, an amiable wife, two grown up sons, one of whom, “handsome Bob," is a United States consul in England. During the past year he has built in Toledo four large business blocks, on*

which, the Blade building, cost $60,000, a fine residence for himself at accost of $16,000 and a brick block of five residences. His total contribution to thi improvement of “The Future Great” during the past year amounted to $143,000. Asa poet, playwright, editor, lecturer and business man Nasby has been a success. The accepted memorial to Gambetta is the joint work of the sculptor Aube and the architect Boileau. It consists of an imposing obelisk springing from a massive pedestal, on two sides of which are allegorical figures representing strength and truth. On the pedestal, in front, Gambetta is the central figure of a very strikihg group, while behind rises the inspiring genius of war, waving with unfaltering hand the flag whose honor Gambetta strove to save. During the last two years Prince Ibrahim Hilmy, son of Ismail Pasha, well known for his extensive knowledge of the language and literature of England, has busied himself in the accumulation of the records of works, manuscript as well as printed, and of all countries relating to Egypt and the Soudan. The work will extend to two large quarto volumes, and will include notices of the earliest as well as of the latest writings in any way affecting the country and its people. Speaking of Dr. Richardson’s process for the painless killing of animals, the Lancet says that science scores in it a magnificent success; it gives inferior creation a blessing it dare not give to man—painless death. The agent, which has been used successfully with 0,000 dogs, is carbonic oxide passed at summer heat over a mixture of chloroform aud bisulphide of carbon into a lethal chamber. The method has been used successfully with sheep, and will be applied to larger animals. Lord Garmoyle, who became a victim to notoriety as defendant in the Fortesque breach of promise sui., was in San Francisco for several days last week, having arrived on a China steamer. The first night he went to the opera at Baldwin’s Theater and occupied a conspicuous place in a box. A too liberal indulgence in American mixed drinks led to his peaceful slumbering with his head on hi3 arm in full view of the audience. He was removed by the a’d of his valet and two or three ushers. In France no candidate for the Legislature is elected unless at the first ballot he has obtained (1) an absolute majority of the votes given, and (2) a number equal to 25 per cent, of the electors on the register. If these conditions are not fulfilled a second election takes place on the second Sunday following the day of the first return. At this election the candidate who stands highest at the poll is decided to bo successfull, no matter what proportion his votes may bear to the total number of voters. A peculiarity of the Freiich electoral law is that, if an equal number of votes is recorded for two candidates, the elder of the two is declared to be elected. As exceptionally well-informed Paris correspondent writes in reference to Parisian girls’ education: A personal anecdote will go further to confirm my statement about the degrading, though perhaps not ununjustifiable suspicion of French parents with regard to their girls, and of the restraint imposed upon them to the day of their marriage. I number among my acquaintances an English lady, well known in the world of literature, the mother of two charming daughters, eighteen ami nineteen. Though anxious that her gil ls should become thoroughly familiar with French, my friend objected to the humiliating system of surveillance of the French boarding school. So. while in Paris, she sent her girls to a first-class establishment as outdoor pupils. Tho school was not a quarter of an hour from her own residence at Neuilly. One day the elder was accompanied thither by her cousin, a fine. English lad. The schoolmistress told her that such behavior would bring her house into disrepute. The girl replied that English girls had no need of being watched to behave themselves. She never entered the house again.

CURRENT PRESS COMMENT. Mb. St. .JOHN seems to be so completely in the toils that mere denial will not suffice to clear his skirts. There is evidently a mass of testimony from which the seal of sgcrecy must be removed before the public will be in a position to measure the height or the depth of Mr. St. John’s political integrity, to say nothing about his personal reputation and his vaunted Christian virtues.—Pittsburg Commercial-Gazetto. The people who voted for Mr. Cleveland, and, still more, the men who insisted on his nomination, on the ground that he was a gr eat reformer, appear to have determined to justify themselves by declaring that whatever he does is a great reform. It is a safe way. But there is some doubt whether the people will accept the theory, and there is some doubt whether the Senate will recognize the right of a President to turn out faithful and competent officials for no other reason than that, being Republican, their kind of partisanship is to him offensive.—New York Tribune. The Indian Territory is susceptible of supporting nearly as large a population as Kansas. The land is equally fertile. If opened to settlement, after setting aside farms for the Indians, it would contain a million of industrious, thrifty, wealth-producing white people within ten years. The rush into that country with its mild, salubrious climate and fertile soil would bo extraordinary. It would quickly take rank among tho great Western States. Sooner or later this must bo the solution of the Indian Territory question. Why postpone and procrastinate the inevitable?—Chicago Tribune. With all its faults and dangers the present system has been better in practice than it is in theory, and it presents at least one very substantial advantage. The national government now contributes something like $1 -.000.000 a 3’ear toward the local expenses of the Irish. Home rule would necessitate the giving up of this snug sum: local self-government would doubtless greatly diminish it. The Irish people will, therefore, have to undergo one of the severe tests of the depth of their desire for liberty, by proving their willingness to accept responsibilities and to pay for them. —St. Louis Globe-Democrat. Now that the Democracy have come into power by the solid vote of the South, Senators Lamar and Vest may be encouraged to make treason respectable, and have the full sympathies of the party’ they represent in doijig so. Even a mugwump may have fallen so low as to see nothing reprehensible in levying war on the United States. But the majority of people accept the definition of treason as given in the Constitution, and the verdict of posterity upon the conduct of those who made war upon the United States wall be in accordance with that definition.—Cincinnati Commer c ial Gazette. , ONCE let their claim be allowed andonr cities mig* l '' be overrun with this obtrusive fanaticism, to the serious disturbance of the peace upon the very day which of all others should from such nuisance. There is everywhere a very considerable element of ignorance and devoteeism which could be organized and kindled in to a serious element of disturbance. Chicago, for example, could easily developo a Salvation Army numbering thousands, and,all things considered, it is best that the laws and ordinances for the preservation of quiet upon the Sabbath should be rigidly enforced.—Chicago Inter Ocean. If St. John is unworthy, the honest and earnest thousands who favor prohibition on principle, and regardless of the effect of agitation in favor of it upon any or all parties, should be made aware of the truth in time to destroy any power for evil that he might otherwise have in tho future. While we cannot agree with that respectable number of the people who believe that temperance should be enforced by statute, and while we are not clear that the obtrusion of such an idea into politics is wise, still we are emphatically opposed to permitting tricky demagogues to go unwhipt of justice when it i3 possible to call public condemnation down upon them by an exposure of their villainy. For these roasons we believe that the St. John controversy should not be allowed to die out while there is a chance to get any guilty man into the pillory. —Pittsburg Times. Were the bank currency to be abolished we should have left, first, the gold coin end the certificates representing gold, against which nothing can be said; second, the silver coin and the silver certificates, which are dishonest and dangerous; third, the legal tenders, which have many elements of uncertainty, the moat serious being the fact, established by the Supreme Court, that the power of Congress to issue them is practically discretionary, and the other fact that they are liable at anv time to become redeemable in silver, now depreciated in value and sure to be fluctuating. Without the bank currency we should have, then, a currency of very doubtful stability, exposed to changes in value from various cau-es. and especially from the act ion of Congress. That would be a very undesirable and very risky currency, and one involving very grave possibilities of disturbance and disaster.—New York Times. If England ha 9 any cause for rejoicing, it is in the fact that the alleged ‘‘Fenians,” or tne dynamiters who supposed to be attempting to blow up Groat Britain. out. a*- 1 . are ©oanneßcing to kill each other. England should have much to hope for from this kind of effort. An internecine contest among the ‘‘skirmishers,” or Fenians, or whatever their name may be, would be the best thing that could happen to our terrified cousins, and. instead of spending their time in fancying what this country mil do. now that it knows what kind of miscreants it has. they should send agents with plenty of money, and iri every poss ible way encourage the outbreak, and get as many of the dynamiters to kill as many other dynamiters as they can reach with knife and pistol. England has now a way opened through which it can march to safety. Let it spend money to continue the vendetta which has just been declared.—Chicago Times.

SCHUYLER COLFAX. Hon. Schuyler Colfax, ox-Vice-president of the United States, died yesterday, at Mankato, Minn. Schuylkr Colfax was born In the city of New York, March 23, 1823. He was, therefore, at the time of his death nearly sixty-two years of age. The death of his father, and also of his sister, preceded his birth. Ho thus became the only child of his widowed mother. His grandfather was Gen. William Colfax, who was born in Connecticut in 1760. William Colfax was commissioned lieutenant in the Continental army at seventeen, and was soon after selected by General Washington as captain commandant of the commander in chief’s guards, position held by Captain Colfax till the disbanding of the army of the Revolution in 1783. At the close of the war Captain Colfax married Hester Schuyler, a cousin of General Philip Schuyler. Gen. Washington stood godfather of their first child, holding him at the baptismal font, and conferring on him his own name. The third son of this marriage bore the honored name of Schuyler. He grew up to be a quiet business man, and became teller in the Mechanics’ Bank of New York City. He died in early manhood, transmitting his name as his sole legacy to his unborn 3on, the subject of this sketch. The early years of the life of Schuyler Colfax were passed amid the stir and din of the city of New York. His school days, which were in the public schools of the city, were not numerous, and ended with his tenth year. In his eleventh year he was employed as a clerk in a store, and at this time his mother, who had been a widow nearly twelve years, was again married to Mr. George W. Matthews. Two years later, at the age of thirteen, he was on the tido of emigration that was flowing to the great West St. Joseph county, in this State, was the objective point to which Mr. Matthews was taking his family, and finally "located”at anembryo village called New Carlisle, where young Colfax again became a clerk in a store, though, as may be imagined, under vastly different surroundings, northern Indiana at thnt day being but sparsely settled. Much of the wild prairie had never been touched. Deer and bear were still plentiful, and Indians were still present in numbers. At the age of eighteen Schuyler was taken to South Bend, his step-father, Mr. Matthews, having been elected county auditor, and he naturally appointed young Colfax his deputy. South Bend has since been the home of Mr. Colfax, and he saw it develop from a village to the thrifty manufacturing center it is to-day. An anecdote is told of Mr. Colfax at this period of his life. Before he was twenty-one he had acted, in attendance at Indianapolis upon the Legislature, as Senate reporter for the Indianapolis Journal. One of Mr. Colfax’s biographers says:

“This was not a very lucrative position, as it yielded but $2 a day. It had, however, other advantages highly esteemed by the proprietor of the Journal, though not so highly prized by the reporter; for, seeking an increase of his per diem, the proprietor demurred. He thought that the acquaintanceship which the reporter’s b erth gave with public men, and the prospects it afforded of becoming ultimately a successful candidate for Congress, made it a good thing. Tho young reporter humorously offered to sell out all his chances for Congress for an additional dollar to the per diem, but tho pro-, prietorof the Journal was immovable.” In 1845 Mr. Colfax became editor and proprieof the St. Joseph Valley Register, a paper which he founded. It soon took foremost rank among the papers of the State, and was widely quoted, wielding acknowledged influence in the politics of the State. In politics, it was first Whig and then Republican. Young in years, but ardent in disposition, and thoroughly imbued with the spirit of justice and liberty, he wrote vigorously and with effect In 1845, at the age of twenty two, he wrote of the defeat of the Whig party: “Reverses may and will dampen the ardor and zeal of any party; but the true man speedily recovers from such mortifications, and labors on steadfastly and earnestly, knowing that the gloom of the present will be superseded by the ultimate triumph of his principles and his cause. What, though one may not be able to win success next year, or the next, or the next? Even though we could scan no ray of hope in the political horizon, should we then despair or yield? Far from it Such thoughts are the counsel of treason, the promptings of indolence. Expediency, as well as honor and right, forbid that we should listen to them. The page of- history is full of records of victory won by untiring perservance, after frequent defeats. It tells of none gained by apathy or despair. The patriots ol the Revolution were themselves driven almost to the grave during their unyielding resistance to tho armies of the British despot. * * A Yorktown came at last, and their trials and de votions were repaid by victory, decisive and complete. ‘Perseverance’ is indeed a glorous word. It has been a talisman to the oppressed. It has given fortune and homes to the poor and lowly. It will yet give success to ‘the beaten, hut not conquered’ Whig party.” Mr. Colfax was a very ardent admirer of Henry Clay. Ho felt that the country was dishonored when, in 1844, Mr. Clay was defeated in the eontest for the presidency. The October and November electiohs of 1846 gave hope to the Whig party that in the next presidential contest they would be victorious. Mr. Colfax, in the ardor of his love for the “man that would rather be right than President,” would gladly have given his influence for Henry Clay, out, with the keenness of perception for which he was ever distinguished in reading the political signs of the times, ho saw in General Zachary Taylor the available candidate and the coming man, and more than a year before the nomination of General Taylor, and upon the ground that we are to seek the advancement and triumph of principles, not of men, he became the earnest advocate of General Taylor for tho presidency. Mr. Colfax was a member and one of the secretaries of the national convention that nominated General Taylor for the presidency. The sanguine hopes, however, that were founded upon his election were doomed to diappointment in the death of Taylor and the succession of Fillmore. Mr. Colfax was a prominent member of the State constitutional convention o,f Indiana, of 1850. In this convention Mr. Colfax won for himself no little reputation as a ready debater and fine speaker, a man of generous impulses, of conscientious character and decided ability. He had written a number of articles previous to the calling of the convention, advocating a number of changes, such as would make the constitution an instrument of principles rather than of law3, leaving the legislatures and courts their appropriate duties. Mr. Colfax took very decided ground in the convention against the section in the Constitution prohibiting the further immigration of negroes and mulattoes, and prohibiting those in tho State from purchasing real estate. He delivered a strong speech on the subject, although well aware of the race prejudice which would impel a majority of the convention to stand by the section. Just as might havo been expected, a majority voted for its submission to the people, and they adopted it by an overwhelming majority. In 1851 he was nominated by the Whigs of his district as their candidate for Congress. HU competitor was Dr. Graham N. Fitch, then can*

didate for re election. As was customary at that time, they “stumped’’ the district together, riding sometimes forty and fifty miles and making two speeches a day. The two began their canvass in the southern part of the district, where Dr. Fitch was at home and Mr. Colfax was a stranger. Dr. Fitch made tha opening speech, and just before sitting down, hoping to overwhelm his.youthful competitor with ridicule, hs advised him, instead of attempting to get a 3eat in Congress to tarry at Jericho until his beard should be grown. This allusion to the tarrying of his beardless competitor at Jericho called out the vociferous yells and derisive laughter of his partisans. Before the laughter had died away, Mr. Colfax was called upon to come forward and begin his first speech in his first canvass for Congress. Stepping forward quickly, and glancing around to catch the eyes of all his hearers, ho engaged their attention at once. “I was nol aware, my fellow citizens,” he began# “that brass and beard were the necessary qualifications of a Congressman. If, in your judgment, it is so, I must renounce all hopes of your votes, as I confess, what you cannot but see, that my competitor has a superabundance of both.” The manner of its delivery, and his exhibition of pluck and*ability, turned the ridicule upon Fitch and won friends for himself. Upon another occasion his opponent sought unfair advantage only to be defeated by hit adroitness, and in this case an exhibition of candor. It had been agreed between them that neither should make mention of the amendment to the Constitution forbidding the immigration of negroes, it being a purely State question. and wholly irrelevant to the race for Congress. This was the article that during the preceding year Mr. Colfax, had so strenuously opposed in convention. Dr. Fitch, knowing th® character of the crowd before him, and that many in it had strong prejudices against tHe negro, and were strongly opposed to the course which Mr. Colfax had pursued in the convention, iu answer to a public question from one of his friends, replied that ho was heartily in favor of tho adoption of the amendment Mr. Colfax met tho unexpected issu* fairly and frankly. He staisd tho previout agreement of the candidates, explained that th® matter had no relevancy to tho congressional canvass, and fully and boldly stated his views. “These,” said he, “are my conscientious convictions. If you ask mo to sacrifice them for a seat in Congress, I tell you frankly I can not do it I would not act counter to my convictions if you could give me fifty terms in Congress.” So popular was the youns candidate that, although not elected, he cufc down tne opposition majority to 200 from nearly 1,000.

In 1852 he was a delegate to the Whig convention that nominated General Scott In 185$ he declined a second nomination to Congress and the majority of the Democratic candidate weut up to 1,200. In 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska bill being the subject of universal discussion and excitement, Mr. Colfax again accepted tho nomination, and received a majority of 1,776. In 185$ Mr. Colfax was re elected, and again in 185$. In June, 1856, he made his memorable speech on ‘The Bogus Laws of Kansas.” This speech, a word-for-word quotation of clause after clause of this infamous code, accompanied with a plain, sober and calmly-toped explanation of the same, produced a very great effect, and was considered so able a summary of;, the cffSe involved, during the presidential campaign of that year a half million copies of it were distributed among the voters of the United States. By way of driving home the truths in the case, Mr. Colfax, when he quoted the clause which inflicted imprisonment at hard labor, with ball and chaiu, upon any one ' whr should ever say “that person* have not the right to hold slaves in this Terrir tory,” lifted from his desk and showed to th* House au iron ball of the statutory dimension! —six inches in diameter—apologizing for not; also exhibiting the six-foot chain prescribed along with it. Alexander H. Stephens, after ward Vice-president of the Confederacy, who sat close by, asked to tako this specimen of proslavery jewelry for freemen, and having tested its weight, would have returned it. But Mr. Colfax smilingly asked him to hold it for him until he was through speaking, and while the proslavery leader dandled the decoration prepared by his friends for men guilty of free speech, Mr. Colfax, in a few telling sentences, showed that Washington, and Jefferson, and Webster, and Clay had said the words which would have harnessed them, a quaternion of convicts, into the chain-gang of the border ruffians. During bis term as a member of tho Thirtysixth Cougress he was chairman of tho committee on postoffices and 'post roads, and did mueh and useful work in keeping alive and healthy the somewhat unwieldy machinery of that important institution, notably in the far West It was a matter of course that Mr. Colfax should go with all his heart into the great struggle of 1860. He felt and understood with unusual earnestness and clearness the importance of the principles involved and the the political campaign. Into a paragaph or two, witten some time before the Chicago nomination, he condensed a whole code of’ political wisdom, and can now be seen to have pointed out Abraham Lincoln as the best candidate, by describing the political availability ar.d ethical soundness of the position Mr. Lincoln then occupied. Ha wrote: • “We differ somewhat from those ardent contemporaries who demand the nomination of their favorite representative man. whether popular or unpopular, and who insist that this must be done, even if we are defeated. We do agree with them in declaring that we shall go for no man who does not prefer free labor and its extension to slave labor and its extension—who, though mindful of the impartiality which should characterize the executive of the whole Union, will not fail to rebuke all new plots for making the government the propagandist of slavery, and compel promptly ana efficiently the suppression of that horrible slave trado which the whole cifilized world has banned as infamous, piratical and accursed. But in a Republican national convention, if any man could be found. North, South, East or West, whose integrity, whose life and whose avowals rendered him unquestionably safe on these questions, and yet who could poll one, two or three hundred thousand votes more than anyone else, we believe it would be but wisdom to nominate him by acclamation, and thus render the contest an assured success from its very opeuing. We hope to see 1860 realize the famed motto of Augustin® —‘ln essentials unity, in non essentials liberty, in all things charity.’ ” That was very broad and sound sense. It was in exact accordance with this droclrine and with these intimations as to who was the right man, that Mr. Lincoln was nominated, according to the desire of Mr. Colfax’s heart, and in the ensuing campaign in this State he did most valuable service in assuring the victory. Effort was made by friends of Mr. Colfax all over the country to put him into Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet. But he had resolved to make Hon. QL B. Smith, of Indiana, Secretary of tho Interior, and could give no other Cabinet place to this State. But so long as hr lived he loved aud respected and trusted Ms,,